X

Japan's Iosys clones the iPhone 5C, slaps on Android

What's the next best thing to a real iPhone 5C? Japan's Iosys believes it's an iPhone 5C look-alike running Android.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
See full bio
Brooke Crothers
The ioPhone5: Swap out one letter and you have the iPhone 5C. And it looks like one too.
The ioPhone5: Swap out one letter and you have the iPhone 5C. And it looks like one too. Iosys

The iPhone has a big following in Japan these days. So, why not tap into the 5C aesthetic with an Android phone?

That appears to be the thinking of Japan's Iosys, which will market the ioPhone5 on Friday, according to a report at Ascii.jp, a major Japanese tech site, and other Japanese sites.

Aside from the Android 4.2 OS, the biggest differences appear to be price and specs.

Ascii was kind enough to post a comparison chart for the ioPhone5 -- which, in effect, is a colorful shell on top of an Android phone -- and the real McCoy.

The ioPhone5 has a 480x854 resolution display, 512MB of RAM, a dual-core Mediatek chip, 4GB of flash storage, and a 2 megapixel camera.

The iPhone 5C boasts a 640x1,136 resolution display, 1GB of RAM, a dual-core A6 chip, 16GB of flash storage (minimum), and an 8 megapixel camera.

Dimensions of the two phones are almost identical.

Oh, and about the price. The ioPhone5 starts at 15,490 yen (about $150).

If you're not sold yet maybe this catchy video will win you over.